With Earth as a backdrop, the International Space Station is pictured in a 2005 photo taken from the Space Shuttle Discovery. The shuttle was on the first "Return to Flight" mission following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. (Contributed by NASA)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A group of Huntsville and Madison students will participate in a very long-distance call on Thursday when they chat with astronauts on the International Space Station.

Students from Discovery, Ed White and Liberty middle schools will take part in the event, to be held on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus. For about 10 minutes, they will be able to talk to Tom Marshburn, an astronaut and medical doctor currently serving on the ISS, via amateur radio.

The space station will be passing directly over Huntsville at the time of the chat, according to a news release from UAH. The full program, which begins at 9 a.m. and will end around noon, is anticipated to bring about 120 eighth-graders onto the UAH campus.

Tom Marshburn (Courtesy of NASA)

The UAH Space Hardware Club is hosting the event, titled Amateur Radio on the International Space Station. The ARISS radio contact is one of a series of educational events held across the United States and abroad to improve the teaching of STEM education, or education in science, technology, engineering and math.

ARISS, a partnership of NASA Johnson, NASA Marshall, the American Amateur Radio Relay League, AMSAT, and radio clubs across the globe, is a part of the Teaching From Space program.

For more information on the Space Hardware Club and its ARISS event, visit space.uah.edu/ARISS.